Muppets, 'Get Smart' Reign at TV DVD Awards

The Muppet Show: Season 2 won TV DVD Awards for best 1970s show and best children's series.

A complete-series boxed set of “Get Smart” won the top honor at the fourth annual TV DVD Awards Nov. 12, while shows featuring Jim Henson's Muppet characters won three awards.

The announcement came at a gala awards dinner at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel in Century City, Calif. The TV DVD Awards were presented by Home Media Magazine in cooperation with TVShowsOnDVD.com, DEG: The Digital Entertainment Group and The Hollywood Reporter.

Get Smart: The Complete Series, a collaboration between Time Life and HBO Video, earned the coveted Best of Show prize. Judges pointed to the set's simple yet clever phone booth packaging that mimics the show's elaborate opening sequence, as well as such bonus features as commentaries, new interviews, bloopers and rare footage.

“This is a classic show, and it's good to see the care and consideration that fans should expect put into this DVD set,” said Thomas K. Arnold, Home Media Magazine publisher and editorial director. “So many catalog TV DVDs are just thrown out there with little added value beyond the episodes themselves.”

Also revealed were the winners in 16 categories as voted by consumers in an online vote. A blue-ribbon panel of judges, comprised of top DVD critics and journalists, selected four finalists in each of the 16 categories from a field of more than 160 studio submissions of titles released between Sept. 1, 2006, and Sept. 30, 2007.

Consumers voted Oct. 15-26 for their favorites among the finalists. The judges panel selected the Best of Show winner from among all entries.

In addition to its Best of Show prize, “Get Smart” won the consumer vote for best 1960s series DVD and tied for best complete-series set with 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment's M*A*S*H: The Martinis & Medicine Collection.

Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment's second-season DVD of “The Muppet Show” also won two awards, for best 1970s show and best children's program, while another fan favorite from Jim Henson Productions, Fox and HIT Entertainment's Fraggle Rock: Season 3, won best 1980s series.

Judges bestowed a special award on Anchor Bay's “Greatest American Hero” limited-edition collector's set for its packaging, which included replicas of props from the show.

Disney, Fox and Time Life/HBO Video led all studios with three awards apiece, followed by BBC Video, Warner Home Video and Paramount Home Entertainment, which each had two.

The winners:

Best of Show: Get Smart: The Complete Series, Time Life/HBO Video

Best 2000s Series: Heroes: Season 1, Universal Studios Home Entertainment

Best 1990s Series: Seinfeld: Season 8, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

Best 1980s Series: Fraggle Rock: Season 3, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment/HIT Entertainment

Best 1970s Series: The Muppet Show: Season 2, Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment

Best 1960s Series: Get Smart: The Complete Series, Time Life/HBO Video